


Sleep Well

by Polska_1999



Series: Sprint Towards Blackout (Happy Steve Bingo 2018) [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Nightmares, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-12 19:13:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16001540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polska_1999/pseuds/Polska_1999
Summary: Steve has difficulty sleeping due to a nightmare. He gets a bit of help from Bucky that later becomes a more permanent arrangement.





	Sleep Well

**Author's Note:**

> Fills the _Sharing a Bed_ square on my **Happy Steve Bingo** card.

##  Sharing Nights

_ “Bucky! Hang on!” _

_ Everywhere around him, Steve saw white. The wind bit sharply and mercilessly at all revealed skin, offering no remorse as it blew snow in every way. The rumble of the train as it sped along the tracks reached into Steve’s bones, shaking him to the core. Below him, the drop was nothing short of dizzying, the ground at the bottom barely visible, but that was not the most frightening thing. No, even more frightening was Bucky, hanging onto the side of the train just out of Steve’s reach, looking as terrified as Steve felt. That bar wouldn’t last long. Steve knew it. Already, it loosened.  He knew it… _

_ “Grab my hand!”  _

_ And yet…  _

_ Bucky fell. _

_...no matter what he did, no matter what he changed, he could never save Bucky. _

“Steve,” a whisper broke through Steve’s senses, dulling his view of the snow and the bite of the wind. However, it was futile against the hole seared into Steve’s heart, the place forever damaged, never allowed to have another thing to fill it again, because it had been all his fault… Steve shifted slightly with a whimper, a cry threatening to rip itself from his throat. 

“Steve!” The voice sounded more urgent now, the vision of the train and the cliff and the dizzying fall fading but the blame remaining.

“Steve, wake up!” A pair of hands grasped Steve by the shoulders and shook him, one warm and one cold. Steve’s eyes snapped open as he suddenly woke up, regaining consciousness. His breaths were heavy as he sat up quickly, which caused him to get dizzy. Thankfully, the same arms that shook him a moment ago now stabilized him, kept him from keening over to the side and off the bed or backwards and risking a head injury against the headboard. 

It took him a moment to gather his bearings of his surroundings. He was in his bedroom in his suite in Stark Tower, which he supposed was now renamed the Avengers Tower after it had been rebuilt following the Battle of New York. He wasn’t in the Alps, hanging off of a train with Bucky just out of reach and about to fall to his (supposed) death. 

Speaking of Bucky… the man was next to Steve right now, dressed in a pajama shirt that was somehow too large on him (and it had the Captain America shield design on it, so Tony was probably the culprit who gave this to Bucky) and in loose pajama pants that were fuzzy and had cute little sheep designs on them. His hair was still long, though not as long as it had been in DC, and it was much cleaner and incredibly soft. (That last part was something Steve knew from experience.) Bucky’s face was arranged into an expression of concern, his eyes speaking of the worry his words did not mention. 

“Bucky…” Steve breathed, his heart rate slowing and breathing lightening upon seeing the brunette man safe and sound.

“I’m here, Steve, I’m here,” Bucky reassured Steve, letting go of one of Steve’s shoulders in favor of sitting down on the edge of the bed. “You know where we are?”

“Avengers Tower, 37th floor, my suite’s bedroom. It’s September 15th, 2014,” Steve recited, finding an odd sense of comfort as he confirmed the time and date to himself. It’s not 1945, they’re not in the Alps, and there is no train. He’s safe here, Bucky’s back, Bucky has been back for almost three months now after going on a spree and burning HYDRA off the global map, and HYDRA won’t be able to harm them again. 

His answer earned him a small smile. “There you are,” Bucky said, relief evident in his voice that Steve was no longer in the clutches of that nightmare, at least not directly. “For a moment, I wasn’t sure where you were in that big ol’ head of yours.”

Steve huffed slightly. “Yeah, well, at least my head isn’t filled with all the stupid,” he responded, continuing the banter. 

“At least the stupid is still contained to my head and hasn’t spread throughout my entire body yet, unlike you.”

“You’re a jerk.”

“Punk.”

The banter felt natural as ever, and it soon made Steve forget about the dream for a few seconds, long enough for a smile to tug at his lips as he looked at Bucky and his too-large shirt. “You look ridiculous in that, by the way.”

“Still better than your spandex tights.”

“Hey, at least it got the attention of the ladies.”

“Yeah, the ones who were being paid to pretend that it looked good.”

“Peggy didn’t mind.”

“Peggy liked you despite your terrible wardrobe and fashion taste, not because of it.”

Steve gave Bucky a small shove, which then caused the brunette supersoldier to laugh and then dramatically fall to the floor with a good second’s worth of a delay. Steve had to roll his eyes at that slightly as Bucky got back up with a small laugh. The laugh did not last long, not as long as it would have long ago (before they went to war and died but didn’t and became men out of time), but even when it faded, a smile continued to light up Bucky’s face, making his already beautiful features look even more stunning, though not as stunning as the pure strength of the man that Steve marveled at time and time again. Despite everything that happened, Bucky still managed to learn how to smile and laugh, even if those were more rare than in the distant past, in another lifetime. Despite everything, Bucky still was able to start recovering again, rediscovering himself. 

Bucky must have said something while Steve was lost in thought, for when Steve snapped out of it, Bucky looked expectant, like he was awaiting an answer to a question. (He had also climbed back up onto the edge of the bed to sit next to Steve.)

“Oh, sorry, wasn’t listening for a moment there… could you repeat what you said?”

“I asked if you were gonna go back to sleep,” Bucky repeated, and Steve looked away, the wall of the room suddenly more interesting than making eye contact with Bucky. 

“Probably not,” Steve admitted, but ended up laying back down on the bed anyways, if at least to rest. “I don’t fall asleep easily after nightmares.”

“It was the train again.” It wasn’t a question; it was a statement.

“Yeah.”

“You know wasn’t not your fault, right?”

“I know.” Not really. “I just have trouble believing that sometimes.”

“I know.” A pause. “You should try sleeping, though; we’re going on that mission in the morning.”

“Don’t have to remind me about it.”

“Any way I could help?”

“Not really.” Steve looked up and met Bucky’s gaze again. “I’ll be fine, Buck. Go back to bed.”

Bucky held Steve’s gaze for a moment, then looked away. However, he didn’t leave the room; hell, he didn’t even get off the bed. He lingered a moment in silence, and just as Steve was about to ask what was wrong, Bucky began moving… except instead of leaving, he began to climb into bed to lay down next to Steve. 

“Buck, what—”

“Hush,” came the order, and Steve did just that. “Move over slightly and stop hogging all of the covers.” Steve did that, too confused by this sudden decision to form the thoughts necessary to argue, much less to articulate them. After a few moments, Bucky was settled on the bed, covers thrown over him and one of Steve’s spare pillows under his head. After wiggling around a bit more, he settled, looking content. He was close to Steve, but not quite touching.

Steve just… stared, a bit too shocked to say anything. Here Bucky was, having refused to leave Steve alone and instead having crawled into bed with Steve. If that wasn’t just completely a Bucky thing to do, then Steve had no clue what was. Steve was pretty sure that he wouldn’t be able to change Bucky’s mind if he tried (and why would he wanna do that?), so he simply accepted Bucky’s presence, not arguing. 

“Think you can try sleeping now?”

“Maybe.” It was a much greater possibility than before.

A pause.

“We… we used to do... this, right? Before… back when you were small, and sick.”

“Yeah, we did. During the war sometimes, too, when it was cold and those bedrolls did nothing to help keep the heat.”

“That wasn’t the only reason, was it?”

“Not always.”

As if having reached a silent understanding, the two supersoldiers ended up shifting closer to one another, with Bucky initiating contact first, pulling Steve closer. Steve shivered slightly against the cold of the metal arm, but it soon warmed up from his body heat and became no longer a problem. Steve pulled Bucky closer, too, letting Bucky’s face rest against the crook of his neck. Any remaining chills from the previous nightmare were gone completely, replaced by the warmth of having Bucky pressed against him. 

They laid like that for a little while in silence. Steve felt every breath Bucky took, each rise and fall of Bucky’s chest a reminder that Bucky was here and alive and safe and with him. Steve let his body relax, too, mind beginning to wander. He was pretty sure Bucky asked him another question at some point, but by then he was too far along the way towards sleep to process it properly. 

The rest of the night passed without incident, and if Steve woke up to comfortable warmth and soft hair, he really did not complain. 

From then on, it became a sort of routine, a silent promise, and whenever Steve and Bucky were both not on missions, they ended up together in one bed. It became such a common occurrence for them, in fact, that one day JARVIS offered to order them a California King bed to replace the Full XL bed Steve originally had. (Why Tony had such odd bed sizes, the world may never know.) Bucky’s room was rarely used now, only ever lived in whenever Steve was away on a mission without Bucky, which also became increasingly rare as Bucky recovered and was cleared for work in the field.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends! In case things haven't been obvious, I am participating in the **Happy Steve Bingo** event! I will be attempting to go for a blackout bingo and thus plan on filling all 25 squares of my card — that means, get ready for as many as 25 fics total featuring our favorite (if a bit self-sacrificial) supersoldier! 
> 
> As usual, my works are beta-read by the one and only amazingly wonderful [SpaceKeet!](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceKeet/pseuds/SpaceKeet) If you get the chance, go out and give her some love!
> 
> As always, thank you all so much for reading! If you liked it, feel free to drop a kudos or bookmark, or alternatively comment if you have something you want to say. Wanna contact me? You can find me on [Tumblr](https://polska-1999.tumblr.com/) or ask me for my Discord in the comments.


End file.
